The Seattle Seahawks officially inked strong safety Kam Chancellor to a three-year, $36 million extension contract that will make him a Seahawks through 2020. The contract deal will make him the third highest-paid safety in the National Football League (NFL), which is unusual for a strong safety player.

It is indeed and unquestionably fair to question the figures given Chancellor’s injury history and the mere fact that he will be 30 years of age in April. However, if you consider the man who gave him that extension contract deal, perhaps it’s best to keep you mouth shut.

There are a couple of main dice rolls every general manager makes when evaluating professional American football players. The initial is predicting how one’s production in college will transfer over to the league. The next one? Anticipating how one will react to contract’s salary.

The sports industry is loaded with a former stars whose production plummeted once their bank accounts beefed up. Just not so much with the Seattle Seahawks.

A quick history: Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas inked a four-year extension contract worth $40 million prior to the 2014 NFL regular-season and has stayed on a Hall of Fame stride. Cornerback Richard Sherman signed a four-year deal, $56 million contract before the start of 2015 NFL season and, in spite of his off-the-field dramatics, he remained one of the top cornerbacks in the league.

Meanwhile, defensive end Michael Bennett signed a four-year, $28.5 million extension contract back in 2014, and made his first Pro Bowl appearance in 2015, and his second on the following year. The nine-year veteran Cliff Avril signed a four-year, $28.5 million extension contract in 2015, then become a Pro Bowler just last year.

Just after signing a four-year extension contract worth $87 million in 2016, Seahawks superstar quarterback Russell Wilson had the best season of his professional football career, which included perhaps the best five-game stretch in the NFL history.

For the past couple of seasons — most especially in 2016 — fans complained about the absence of capital allocated toward the organization’s offensive line. Perhaps those grumbles have now been justified.

Most Seattle Seahawks fans reacted to Kam Chancellor’s signing with gladness, which is no shock given his remarkable social position in Seattle. Salary-cap analysts, on the other side of the ball, were a bit more suspicious.

Not only did the extension contract top the criterion for an efficient strong safety, it set a paradigm for tremendous success for other aging and veteran members of the Seahawks team.